Linda Syvrud elected Girls State Governor, 1964

25 Years Ago – 1989
Katie Klusman, daughter of Roger and Elaine Klusman of New Salem, has been crowned the 36th Morton County Dairy Princess by the 1963 princess, Janelle Friesz. Katie was sponsored by the Carefree Homemakers Club of New Salem and was chosen from nine area contestants.

The Fort Lincoln Trolley Co. has made its first run from the Third Street Station to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. According to owner Jim Beck, the oak trolley, with a capacity of 40 people, departs on the hour from Mandan, just east of the Stage Stop Saloon, with return trips on the half hour.

The Mandan sign on Crying Hill looks good, thanks to a crew from the N. D. State Industrial School. Four girls from Maple Cottage, along with supervisor Sue Reichenberg, teamed up with Walt Odegaard and his daughter, Susan, to paint the rocks and trim the surrounding grass and weeds, in 97-degree weather. The Mandan Moose Club provided 20 gallons of white paint for the project.

50 Years Ago – 1964
Linda Syvrud, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. G. Syvrud of Mandan, has been elected Governor of North Dakota Girls State during their annual convention, attended by 513 delegates, on the campus of the University of North Dakota, Fargo. Linda is Mandan’s third girl to become governor of Girls State in the 18 years that the Legion Auxiliary has sponsored the program. Mandan’s first governor, elected in 1947, was Patricia West, now the wife of Richard Unkenholz of Valley City. Beverly Simpson represented Mandan in 1958. She is currently a high school teacher in Missoula, Mont.

Swimming rates at Mandan’s outdoor pool are the same as last year, according to manager Arnold Larson. Individual prices for ages 10 and under are 15 cents; for ages 11 to 17, 20 cents; and 17 and over, 35 cents. This year’s lifeguards are: Claire Cannon, James Boyd, David Buzza, Penny Toman, Patricia Haseltine and Robert Renner.

Mrs. Fred Wetzel has been chosen Mandan’s Mrs. VFW of 1964 for her outstanding services to the local Auxiliary of which she has been a member since 1952. She is a Past Unit President, served as District president for two years, as Department historian for two years and is currently Department guard as well as secretary and trustee of the local unit.

John Warren, son of Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Warren of Mandan, has received the Boy Scouts’ highest honor, the Eagle Award, from Troop 51 Scoutmaster Pete Balkan, during a Court of Honor ceremony held at the First Presbyterian Church of Mandan. The Life Scout award went to Dave Stuart, Jr., and the First Class Scout award was given to Jack Paris.

75 Years Ago – 1939
Wallace Lundgren of Flasher turned in a sack containing 206 pair of Magpie wings into the Morton County auditor’s office this week and requested a certificate to collect $30.90 in bounty. The state offers a bounty of 15 cents for each pair of magpie wings brought to a county auditor’s office. Considered as vermin, the hungry magpies and crows are known to devour grain and corn from farmers’ fields.

John Schaff, Mandan, has won the recreation- sponsored horseshoe tournament under the supervision of Paul Knoll, recreation leader. Schaff defeated John Helbling in the finals, 21-8. In the semi-finals, Schaff defeated Eugene Eckroth while Helbling advanced on a bye.

Funeral services were held this week at the St. Anthony’s Catholic Church for Stephen Tokach Sr., 70, retired Morton County farmer. Tokach was born in Austria-Hungary, coming to the United States at age 20. He married Anna Zinnel of Mandan in 1895 and filed on a farmstead east of St. Anthony four years later. Mrs. Tokach died in 1929. Pallbearers were his five sons- Stephen Jr., Anton, Michael, Mathew and Louis, and a brother-in-law, Anton Zinnel. Other survivors include his widow, Barbara (Zoff) Tokach; one daughter- Sr. Mary Ursala, St. Louis, Ill.; and 12 grandchildren.

C. W. Swain, former president of Mayville State Teachers College and current president of Minot State Teachers College, was this year’s speaker at the annual Morton County eighth grade graduation exercises held in Mandan’s World War Memorial auditorium. Diplomas were awarded to 206 students by L. G. Rockne, deputy superintendent, and Gena A. Jensen, Morton County Superintendent of Schools. Following the ceremony, the students and their parents and guests were invited to the picnic grounds at Riverside Park in the Syndicate addition of the city where the newly-organized Mandan Lions Club donned caps and aprons to serve ice cream, pop and coffee. Lunch was furnished by the individual families.

1914- While offering cut-rate prices for entertainment “under the stars”, the Airdome seemed to be winning the competition against two other Mandan theaters…until two week’s of rainy and cold weather put a halt to their evening attractions.

100 Years Ago – 1914
“The steel head trout planted in the Sweet Briar creek last fall are growing. Dan Turnbull was in the city today and reports having seen some of the beauties that were from eight to 15 inches long. It makes the mouths of the sportsmen water, but the fish are protected by law for five years.
“A number of pupils from the rural schools of the county are in the city today taking the final eighth grade examinations at the courthouse. Because the rural schools are closed for the school year, it was necessary for the pupils to take their final tests here in order to officially pass their grade.

“Roman candles fired from the alley back of the Airdome into that theater last night might easily have started a panic, but the patrons of the house thought it was part of the evening’s entertainment. Manager Francis J. Tyler and employee Dick Key caught the boys in the alley of the next block after a hard chase. The two culprits were then turned over to Policeman Phillip Jones and taken to the city jail. This is their second offense. The boys had also fired Roman candles through the open windows of the high school earlier in the year. According to Jones, a third offense will place them in the reform school.”

The Airdome, located west of the Lewis & Clark Hotel, had no roof. The manager thought people would be attracted to watching films and vaudeville entertainment, while sitting “under the stars.”

125 Years Ago – 1889
The village of Mandan was organized in the spring of 1881; just eight years later, statehood was the talk of the Dakota Territory.

“A citizen expressed indignation today at the numerous ‘free riders’ on freight cars passing through Mandan. The number of tramps on the move, both toward the setting and rising sun, is appalling.

“The marriage of Mr. James Drury and Miss Mary Tobin took place at St. Joseph’s church yesterday at 10 o’clock mass. Before performing the ceremony, Father Perrault made a few remarks on the solemnity of marriage and of the great prevailing evil of divorce.

“Yesterday Mr. W. E. L. Dilloway of Boston and Mr. Hazen J. Burton of Minneapolis, both of the Mandan Land Company, came to town and spent several hours looking over their property in south side Mandan. They decided to repair the dyke which protects their property from the Heart River.

Front Page News: “Death, ruin and desolation are but meager words applied to Johnstown, Penn., where thousands of people have died after the South Fork Dam collapsed, freeing 20 million tons of Lake Conemaugh to cascade down the Little Conemaugh River. The entire lake was drained of water within 45 minutes. The disaster occurred after more than 10 inches of rain had fallen within 24 hours.” (More than 2200 people, including 99 entire families and 396 children, died in the flood. The Johnstown flood was the first major effort handled by the new , led by).